O-2A s/n 67-21350
Manufactured by Cessna Aircraft in Wichita, Kansas and gained by the U.S. Air Force on July 28 1967. Civilian registration number 337M-0056.
Aug 1967 To 504th Tactical Air Support Group 20th Tactical Air Support Squadron (Pacific Air Forces), Da nang Air Base, Vietnam.
Jan 1969 Aircraft dropped from U.S. Air Force inventory as a combat loss, hours on the airframe are currently unknown.
Additional note: On January 18th 1969 a U.S. Air Force A-1H Skyraider s/n 52-134588 flown by U.S. Air Force Captain Robert Franklin Coady from the 602nd Special Operations Squadron, 56th Special Operations Wing out of Nakhon Phanom Air Base on a Search and Rescue effort to rescue U.S. Air Force an F-4 Phantom crew and another aircraft just a few miles South of Ban Kate. There were a total of four A-1 Skyraiders attacking a 37mm anti-aircraft gun implacement, Capt Coady's A-1 was hit by AAA (Anti-Aircraft-Artillery) and it crashed, Capt Coady was declared dead in 1978, (In July 1992 Capt Coady's crash site was investigated by a joint US/Loatian team, a number of Capt Coady's personal items were found, but there was no remains at the crash site)
while the search for the downed airmen continued between Ban Kate and Ban Vangthon on January 18th U.S. Air Force Major G H Blair and 2Lt W E Townsley were flying in there O-2A s/n 67-21350 just 15 miles South, the O-2 was flying the village of Ban Palin and doing battle damage assessment on enemy trucks there on the Ho Chi Minh Trail done from the night before. As the aircraft reached an altitude of 7,500 feet a AAA gun opened up on them and damaged the tail section of the aircraft, unable to control the aircraft, Major Blair and 2Lt Townsley bailed out of the crippled aircraft and landed near the wreckage, both were rescued by a U.S. Air Force HH-53 helicopter that was assigned to the 40th Air Rescue and Recovery Squadron.
2Lt Townsley was badly injured either during the bail-out or upon landing, during the rescue, A-1 Skyraider escorts dropped CBU-19 tear gas cannisters to keep the North Vietnamese away from the two downed crewmen, both Major Blair and 2Lt Townsley survived to fly another day.
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